PASADENA, Calif. — The final BCS championship game was played Monday night and the Rose Bowl hosted the best two title games ever played in the BCS era. Florida State refused to quit and defeated Auburn, 34-31, in a game that saw 31 points scored in the fourth quarter.

The only rival to this game was the 2006 USC-Texas game played here when the Longhorns won 41-38 behind quarterback Vince Young’s heroics. All the drama Monday night made it easy to cast my No. 1 vote for Florida State for Tuesday’s final Associated Press top 25 poll.

The Seminoles were not No. 1 in my final regular-season ballot as I picked Auburn ahead of them. But Florida State overcame an 18-point deficit and an average performance by Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston to still defeat a Tiger team that looked like it might win in a rout in the first half.

As an AP voter, I could have picked another team as No. 1. Some liked Michigan State. Oklahoma made a late charge with victories over Alabama and Oklahoma State.

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But Florida State took Auburn’s punches and survived. The Rose Bowl was electric with the Seminole fans’ War Chant throughout the game and literally shook when Kermit Whitfield returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to give the Seminoles a 27-24 fourth-quarter lead.

Even after Auburn tailback Tre Mason scored on a 37-yard run with 1:19 left, the Seminoles came back again. Just the fact Florida State snapped the SEC’s seven-year streak of winning BCS titles earned them my vote.

Teams get battle-tested in the SEC. They hit hard and are lightning-fast on defense. It is why the conference won those seven BCS titles. Auburn lived up to that model Monday night and contained Winston most of the game.

There were questions going into the game if Florida State could handle facing an SEC team after playing in the ACC and facing schools like Nevada and Bethune Cookman in nonconference games.

But on the biggest stage of the season before 94,208 fans at the Rose Bowl including its legendary coach Bobby Bowden, the Seminoles (14-0) came through. Because Auburn (12-2) was so valiant in defeat, I could not rank them lower than No. 2.

Sorry Michigan State fans. But Ohio State did not make your victory over the Buckeyes look any better after losing in the Orange Bowl. And beating Stanford in the Rose Bowl was nice but the Cardinal also lost to Utah.

That is why I ranked South Carolina No. 3. Michigan State was No. 4 and surging Oklahoma No. 5. The Sooners might be the best team in the nation right now after those season-ending victories over Oklahoma State and Alabama.

Florida State finally atoned for letting me down 13 years ago. I was the only voter to rate the Seminoles No. 1 going into the 2001 title game, which they lost to Oklahoma. I’m still frustrated over that result.

But I’m sure Florida State fans felt a lot worse. At least they are celebrating today.

Scott Wolf covers college football for Digital First Media in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter @insideusc.